A fascinating portrait of Welles in his last three years of life. The transcripts of conversations between Welles and Jaglom read almost like a podcast. Casual, problematic, and full of gossip. ( )

Highly entertaining table talk from master raconteur Orson Welles. ( )

Henry Jaglom gives us something we've been needing for a long time; more opinions by Orson Welles. Arguably the greatest director of all time, Welles accepted an invitation from Jaglom to record their nearly daily lunches at the esteemed director's favorite haunt. We get to read the conversations they had about the art of filmmaking, and some of the people in it. They talk about the ups and downs, ins and outs, the power of film and filmmakers, and food. There are wonderful stories in this book, and talk of movies they each have waiting to be made, and the one semi-documentary that Jaglom directed, Someone to Love, which includes Orson Welles throwing wisdom like a Greek Chorus. A must see companion to the book.

A book very much worth the time, if only to learn more about movies and movie people, and a great friendship. ( )

This was a fascinating read, but given that it takes place toward the end of Orson Welles' life, it is ultimately not a fun read.

It certainly has its moments though. You definitely feel like you're eavesdropping on a famous genius telling tales of his past without any filters.

However, he clearly realizes that his best years are behind him, so in my opinion that casts a pall over the humor. ( )

During his final years Orson Welles was under-financed and under-appreciated; recognised as a legendary figure of the film world, he was unable to secure financing to make even a modest movie in the way he wanted. This collection of lunchtime conversations was recorded in the early 1980s, a time when Welles was fighting to begin a number of projects that never came to fruition. While Welles the filmmaker required financial backing to realise his vision, Welles the conversationalist was bound by no such restraints. His friend and occasional man-of-business Henry Jaglom was authorised to record their lunchtime table talk as long as Welles couldn't see the recorder. The resulting book, brought together by Peter Biskind, is for Welles fans only and presupposes a knowledge of his oeuvre that is best obtained from a more general book such as Jonathan Rosenbaum's 'This is Orson Welles' or Clinton Heylin's 'Despite the System'. Welles was a legendary talker, and his conversations with Jaglom show him at his Johnsonian best, an opinionated, deliberately provocative, gossippy polymath – but well-informed, self-revealing, wise and always supremely entertaining. Unlike the conversations taped by Peter Bogdanovich for 'This is Orson Welles', the Jaglom tapes offer a spontaneous Welles, not revised by the great man once transcribed. One by-product of this is that many cutting comments about his colleagues make it into print; it seems likely that Welles, who was always highly sensitive of criticism of himself by others in the film industry, would have softened, deleted or generalised some of the harsher remarks he makes to Jaglom about actors and filmmakers he has known. Over all, this book is a compulsive read, and sadly must stand in place of the final films Welles never got to make. ( )